lily of the valley – her wedding flowers/ flowers also mean affection, also though the photo does not show it, there are two stems for two children and the flowers each represent a grandchild

heart -love

book – she was a teacher

ball-in-cage – love held safe

spoon bowl – to love and look after ( the tradition is believed to refer to the wife as the one who feeds the family)

This lovespoon has been a very enjoyable challenge, and as I like to do, incorporates some elements that push me just a little. In this case, the Lily of the Valley (the bell-shaped flowers between the heart and the disc) was a tricky little carving since I have a bit of a thing about rotary power tools – I hate them, and will not use them, in fact I don’t actually own one – when mine packed up I couldn’t be bothered to replace it. It can be tempting to use the power tool as a short-cut which in fact it adds time and effort, the rotary power tool has a specific job to do but even I will acknowledge that for engraving and drilling they really do excel. However, as soon as you move up in scale from etching and engraving, I believe chisels/gouges/knives to be superior in almost every way but for this job I am not sure whether rotary power might have been the better choice. Still, carving such fine work with gouges, drills and coping saw was a lot of fun.